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Friday, January 14, 2011

Friday & Women who Love Poetry...

The lovely women I read to and talk with Thursday, January 13th

Above are some of the beautiful people who attended my reading at their retirement and assisted living residence. My best friend from high school is a social worker here and I visit every so often to talk about poetry, writing, publication, and read some poems.

We classed it up a bit this time with wine (or white grape juice) and cheese, and the ladies were thrilled.

I always hope for audience participation as this generation knows a thing or two about poetry and many have memorized poems (one woman came up to the mic to share what she remembered from grade school). And honestly, I am never disappointed with the humor and opinions from this group.

These ladies have the best stories and my favorite comment was from a delightful woman who said, "We had Carl Sandburg come to our school and he looked like a hobo, but when he recited 'Chicago,' we all wanted to become poets."

I tell you, that comment completed made my day.

~

Coming up in next couple of weeks, an interview with Jeannine Hall Gailey on micropresses and other ways to publish your mss.

5 comments:

Oh, how wonderful. I have done this, too, and alerted some area poets to this appreciative venue. One poet responded warmly, as I had read in the very residential retirement that his mother lived in before she died. He scheduled himself in right away!

I also love the woman said about Sandburg. I know exactly what she means.

It was when I was 14 years old, after a teacher showed me some poems by Carl Sandburg, and played a recording of him reading a few of his poems, that (later that day or later that week) I decided to be a poet, and I started writing poems.

It took a few years before I was sure I was going to keep at it, but it started that way -- reading and listening to Carl Sandburg.